KU Leuven, Zoology Museum, Bird collection (Aves)

Occurrence Specimen
Latest version published by KU Leuven on Nov 19, 2025 KU Leuven
Home:
https://blendeff.be/s/en/collection/MUD
Publication date:
November 19, 2025
Published by:
KU Leuven
License:
CC0 1.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 1,323 records in English (70 KB) - Update frequency: as needed
Metadata as an EML file download in English (33 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (12 KB)

Description

The collection of the KU Leuven Zoology Museum is currently estimated to contain over 16.000 specimens. Its history is strongly entwined with that of the university and can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century when the remains of the zoological collection of the Old University (1425–1797) were brought together in the Cabinet of Natural History (Cabinet de l'Histoire Naturelle), located in the Collegium Regium. Allied bombing during WWII caused severe damage to the collection, resulting in the loss of many specimens. Additional fragmentation occurred in the late 1960s - early 1970s when half of the collection was transferred to Louvain-la-Neuve following the split of the Catholic University of Leuven into two independent sister universities: the Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (currently KU Leuven) and the French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain (currently UCLouvain). The ornithological collection contains of over 1.990 mounted birds in addition to a large collection of bird clutches. It includes a large donation by the Pas-Wegner family to the Biology Department of KU Leuven in 2020 consisting of 1.324 mounted birds collected by Frans Pas (1935-2020) and his father Jan Pas (1905-1988). Father and son mostly collected specimens in the Campine area across the Dutch-Belgian border, but birds from other areas in Europe (incl. Greenland) are present as well. Their collection furthermore contains a total of over 140 specimens purchased from Danish taxidermists Jørgen Kofoed, Thorkil Duch and Christian Aboe Sørensen, as well as from the German company A. Schlüter KG. In addition to the mounted birds collected by Frans and Jan Pas, the ornithological collection of the Zoology Museum contains around 670 mounted birds dating back to the 19th century and originating from more exotic locations, including Java and South America. Highlights of the ornithological collection include mounted specimens of the extinct Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) and Blue-grey Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus), alongside the almost complete set of European birds from the Pas collection. Please note that the current version of this GBIF dataset only contains the mounted birds of the Pas collection.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1,323 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Occurrence (core)
1323
Multimedia 
2804

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is KU Leuven. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: ec836767-7df3-4b7e-bee4-63e1d3ee0bba.  KU Leuven publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Occurrence; Specimen; zoology; birds; ornithology; museum collection; taxidermy

Contacts

Ann Van Baelen
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Point Of Contact
Academic and Historical Heritage Office
Mario Driessen
  • Originator
Department of Biology, KU Leuven
Nathalie Poot
  • Originator
Academic and Historical Heritage Office
Luc Brendonck
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation
Bert De Groef
  • Point Of Contact
Kevin Kerckhofs
  • Point Of Contact
Ann Van Baelen
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Point Of Contact
Bert De Groef
  • Point Of Contact
Faculty of Science, KU Leuven
Kevin Kerckhofs
  • Point Of Contact
Department of Biology, KU Leuven
Scientific Collections & Heritage, KU Leuven

Geographic Coverage

Worldwide with a focus on Europe and especially the Campine region along the Dutch-Belgian border.

Bounding Coordinates South West [33.833, -52.05], North East [78.157, 35.833]

Taxonomic Coverage

Aves

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Suliformes, Anseriformes, Galliformes, Pteroclidiformes, Passeriformes, Pelecaniformes, Gruiformes, Apodiformes, Cuculiformes, Phoenicopteriformes, Ciconiiformes, Falconiformes, Accipitriformes, Columbiformes, Charadriiformes, Bucerotiformes, Podicipediformes, Caprimulgiformes, Procellariiformes, Otidiformes, Strigiformes, Coraciiformes, Piciformes, Gaviiformes
Family Alcidae, Sylviidae, Upupidae, Phylloscopidae, Columbidae, Regulidae, Certhiidae, Aegithalidae, Emberizidae, Glareolidae, Picidae, Hydrobatidae, Fringillidae, Alcedinidae, Scolopacidae, Charadriidae, Gruidae, Recurvirostridae, Pteroclididae, Otididae, Phoenicopteridae, Phasianidae, Turdidae, Acrocephalidae, Caprimulgidae, Sulidae, Cinclidae, Laniidae, Paridae, Gaviidae, Ardeidae, Oriolidae, Anatidae, Troglodytidae, Laridae, Corvidae, Muscicapidae, Motacillidae, Procellariidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Cuculidae, Podicipedidae, Stercorariidae, Haematopodidae, Sittidae, Sturnidae, Pandionidae, Cettiidae, Coraciidae, Threskiornithidae, Passeridae, Calcariidae, Bombycillidae, Prunellidae, Accipitridae, Hirundinidae, Strigidae, Alaudidae, Passerellidae, Burhinidae, Remizidae, Panuridae, Falconidae, Apodidae, Tytonidae, Rallidae, Locustellidae, Cisticolidae, Ciconiidae, Meropidae

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1901-03-31 / 1985-05-10

Project Data

Title: DiSSCo Flanders Funder name: The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) Award number: I001721N Title: DiSSCo Flanders Funder name: The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) Award number: I001625N

Title DiSSCo Flanders
Identifier I001721N
Funding Flemish Governement (FWO)

The personnel involved in the project:

Luc Brendonck

Collection Data

Collection Name Pas Bird Collection

Additional Metadata

Acknowledgements
Alternative Identifiers https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=kul-bird-collection